Week 1 Course overview. Syllabus and guidelines. Blog setup. Introductions. Big History.
(May 11-15) Early humans. Timeline of major eras. Reading via online links.
Due: Module 1, Introductory
Welcome to World History for Summer 2020. Thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, this class will be conducted entirely online with no in-person meetings. Our textbook is Robert Strayer’s Ways of the World. As noted on the Syllabus sent out last week, we will be using the 3rdedition and you can get a copy with or without the “sources” or “documents” feature. You can get a more recent edition of the book if you like, but we have decided as a department not to require anything more recent than the 3rdedition, as this enables students to find an abundance of used copies and saves on costs.
For this first week, all reading will be online to give you all time to acquire your textbooks. If you think you will have trouble getting access to a textbook, please let me know right away.
Our class website is also noted on the syllabus: http://WHSummer2020.blogspot.com
The class website is where I will post your Modules and other documents. You’ll find the Syllabus and Schedule already there. Note that the Schedule lists out in broad strokes what will be covered and what will be due each week. The Modules will give more detail and specific mini-assignments to complete that week. I will do my best to post Modules several weeks ahead of time for those of you who want to get ahead. (And apologies that this first week’s Module is two hours late!)
If you have questions about how to manage your work, please don’t hesitate to ask. The online format is new for this class and some things might not be as clear as I think they are.
1) Your first assignment for this week is to create your own blog, also using the free blogger platform, and send the link to your blog to me. Your blog is where you will post most of your homework and where other students will be able to read your reflections on our reading assignments. I will include a link to your blog on the class website so you can easily find each other. Here are instructions for creating your blog:
How to Set Up Your Online Reading Journal – aka Your Blog!
1) Go to www.blogger.com.
2) If you already have a Google account, use it to log in. If you do not, follow the on-screen instructions to create one. Make sure you write down your Google account name and password for later use.
3) Once you’ve logged in to blogger.com, follow the on-screen instructions to create a “new blog.”
The title of your blog can be anything you want
The unique part of your address should be something simple like gregsworldhistoryblog
Your full blog address will be:
http://__________.blogspot.com
example: http://gregsworldhistoryblog.blogspot.com
If you are asked whether you want to register or monetize your blog, etc., just say no.
4) Now that your blog exists, open up your email account and email the address to me. Remember, your address begins with http:// and ends with .blogspot.com. My email address is pandrews@ndnu.edu.
5) Log out of your blog and log back in again to make sure it all works OK. Then click on the pencil to make your first post as described later in this Module.
6) You’re done!
2) Your second assignment for this week is to introduce yourself to your classmates, and to me. This introduction will be your first post in your new blog. Share a little about your interest in our subject – World History… the history of everything from the beginning until today! – your hopes and concerns relating to the class, where you are writing from (local or out of town… different time zone?), and something about your own personal history or your family history. Post your introduction by 11:00 pm Wednesday, then read the introductions of your classmates and post comments on at least two of them. Is there anyone in the class you already know? I will start by posting an introduction to myself on the class website.
3) Third, spend at least 30 minutes online finding sources relating to Big History. Use the online sources to learn what scholars mean by “Big History” and write a new post in your blog on this subject, titled “Big History.”What is Big History? Is this a new concept to you or have you heard of it before? Does it seem logical to you that history could be taught this way? Be sure to list your web sources in your post.
4) Fourth, using the same method, spend at least 30 minutes online researching the subject of early humans and write a new post in your blog titled “Early Humans.” How far back does the human species go? Was Australopithecus a species of human? Was Homo Erectus a species of human? Compare Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens in terms of the range and duration of their presence on the planet Earth. Be sure to list your web sources in your post.
5) Finally, while you won’t need to memorize a lot of dates for this class, there are a few timeline elements you should memorize, as this will help you put everything we do in perspective. Traditionally, from the Western historical perspective, the five major eras of human history are:
Paleolithic àNeolithic àAncient àClassical àModern
To this, however, we might add three additional eras:
Cosmic, Gaiac, and Ecozoic
How might you, as a historian, arrange these three additional eras when adding them to the traditional timeline? Use your own historical intuition and/or get online to learn what the roots of these terms (cosmos, Gaia, eco-) might refer to. As your fifth and final assignment for this week, create a new post titled “Timeline” in which you write all 8 eras in order, along with a paragraph or two reflecting on whether or not it makes sense to include the Cosmic, Gaiac and Ecozoic on our World History timeline.
~ ~ ~
That’s it for Module 1. Please be sure to get your textbook in time to start reading for Module 2. As with many history classes, there will be a significant reading load for this class. We will address how to manage that reading load as we move into Module 2. Until then, I hope you enjoy meeting each other online and exploring the material you find relating to this earliest part of our common past.
No comments:
Post a Comment